Departing June 9, Ryan Gilhuly and Dwight Smith will embark on a journey , attempting to pedal from the Atlantic Coast, New Haven, CT to the Pacific Coast, Santa Barbara, CA with no amenities, hoping for anything the west has to offer and to raise awareness and donations for the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation's Arthur C. Luf Children's Burn Camp.

A message from the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation

Ryan and Dwight hope to raise $10,000 to support the burn camp, which will host 70 children between the ages of 8 and 18. They are determined to reach the West Coast as a personal challenge as well as helping young burn survivors.

Started in 1991, the Arthur C. Luf Children's Burn Camp is located in northern Connecticut on 176 acres. Every summer, burn survivors come to the burn camp, which is a safe and fun environment that helps kids heal emotionally and physically. The Burn Camp is free to the children, who come primarily from the Northeast and some foreign counteries, but any burn survivor child anywhere is welcome. More than 70 adult counselors, primarily active and retired firefighters and burn unit nurses, occupational and physical therapists, child psychologists and even a doctor will serve as mentors for the week.

It's also our goal to promote burn awareness and fire prevention and education, which we do year around. We sponsor a burn survivor, burned in a car accident that involved speeding and drinking alcohol, who speaks to high school students throughout Connecticut. We also support the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital, helping to purchase equipment.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Seneca to Washington

Dwight and I were walking in downtown Seneca, KS at dusk when I started talking to this really nice woman, Linda. She was attending the main street event she was directing, a Saturday Night Live in Seneca (a town gathering on main street where people bring their lawn chairs for a night of food, drink and free entertainment). I bumped into Linda as Dwight was talking to a group of townspeople, after a brief conversation she invited us to stay the night at her guest house. It was only a quarter-mile from downtown, we got to take showers and sleep in comfort. In the morning, she made us breakfast and let us check our email. Thank-you Linda, Rick and Kennedy!

Mike, the Fire Chief in Washington is the man! He found out we were cycling through western Kansas and eastern Colorado with only a couple liters of water, each. He stressed that the towns were going to get more distant and much smaller, with less to offer. As he took us for a short tour of downtown in his van and showed us a great spot to camp, he gave us some good advice for the road ahead. He dropped us off at the gas station so we could get something to eat but he was back in no time with two nalgene bottles he grabbed from his house for Dwight and I. We accepted with many thanks.Then!...he came back with a camelback for me! (a camelback is a 2 liter water-bladder that attaches to your back like a backpack and you drink from it out of a hose- pretty fancy and expensive) He must have seen that Dwight had one and came back with his, which he gave to me. The camelback has been the greatest addition to my gear so far and I'm not sure what I would have done these past few days of 100 degree heat without it. Thanks Mike!